UMass Dartmouth details plan to take an economic lead, garner research university designation

Saturday

Aug 30, 2014 at 12:42 AMAug 30, 2014 at 12:50 AM

Michael Gagne Herald News Staff Reporter @HNMikeGagne

FALL RIVER — Officials at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth have high hopes for increasing the number of students who graduate from the university with doctorate degrees. And they envision the college playing a larger role in becoming the region’s leading research university and as a catalyst for economic development, according to a six-year strategic plan — called UMassDTransform2020 — that will officially be announced on Tuesday. The plan runs through the year 2020.

UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Divina Grossman and Chief of Staff John Hoey discussed some of the details of that new strategic plan during a meeting with the Herald News editorial board on Friday.

The drafting of the strategic plan, which was completed in May, took one year and is the result of the work of more than 40 people with hundreds of other participants from the university and other regional and business leaders throughout the year, Grossman said.

The plan lists a first goal to “vigorously contribute to the advancement of knowledge” by developing innovative and high-impact research and academic programs.

Research and education “will be integrated into every aspect of campus planning and decision making,” the plan reads.

The second goal is delivering “vibrant learning experiences” for students. And the third is receiving recognition “globally, nationally and regionally for effective research, scholarship and innovation.” That goal will be reached in part by receiving a designation from the Stanford, California-based Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “Doctoral Research University.”

The designation recognizes when a university awards at least 20 doctorate degrees each academic year. UMass Dartmouth is currently designated as a “Large Masters University.”

“We are already on a path here,” Grossman said, adding that last May, the university awarded 24 doctorate degrees.

Through designation as a research university, UMass Dartmouth would join the ranks of other UMass campuses, including UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell.

Grossman said southeastern Massachusetts currently lacks the presence of a major research university, a void that UMass Dartmouth could potentially fill.

“The region deserves a research university,” she said, explaining that a designation as a research university would enable it to attract and develop academic talent.

Grossman told The Herald News Editorial Board that the university also needs to be focused on student success, including looking at offering new degree programs, potentially a program in data science, a field where growth is occurring.

“Everything requires big data analytics,” Grossman said. The field analyzes trends in various fields, including health care and education.

There are two areas where the university “needs to have a consequential role” in the region, she said.

One is fostering entrepreneurship and economic development in the region, by attracting researchers and corporations to the area, as well as incubating others, and the second area is increasing the educational attainment of the region by partnering with the region’s kindergarten-through-Grade-12 school districts.

“That’s the pipeline” to the university, Grossman said.

The strategic plan is going to be followed by a facilities-planning process and a budget-planning process.

Grossman said that, during the course of implementing the strategic plan, the university will look to leverage various resources, including state and federal grants and entrepreneurs.

“We have to carefully build that. We need the support of elected officials, state and federal grants and the corporations themselves,” Grossman said.

Hoey said shortly after the meeting the value of receiving designation as a doctoral research university is that it demonstrates “we’re continuing to evolve into a major research university.”

“I think it’s a designation that sends a signal to the rest of the higher education world about the shape and scope of your university. Who would care? Potential faculty, graduate students, PhD candidates. Or even undergraduates, and various kinds of funders, whether they be governmental, private or other. It’s an enhancement of your reputation,” Hoey said.